Discovering the Arabic Alphabet: A Detailed Guide from Number of Characters to Unicode

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Key Takeaways

• Basic Characters: The standard Arabic alphabet has 28 characters, which are primarily consonants (an abjad system).
• No Case Distinction: There is no concept of uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Diacritical Dots (I‘jām): Many letters share the same basic shape and are distinguished by the number/position of dots.
• Vowel Marks (Ḥarakāt): Used to indicate short vowels and other phonetic features.
• Positional Shapes: Most letters have different forms (isolated, initial, medial, final) depending on their position in a word.
• Alphabetical Order: There are two main orders: Abjadī (ancient, used for numerals) and Hijā’ī (modern, used for sorting and teaching).
• Importance of Unicode: The international standard helps to correctly encode, display, and process Arabic script in digital environments.
• Cultural Significance: Central role in Islam, literary and scientific heritage, the art of calligraphy (khatt), and as a symbol of identity.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to the Arabic Alphabet
2. Understanding the Number of Characters in the Arabic Alphabet
3. Arabic Alphabetical Order: Abjadī and Hijā’ī
4. The Role of Unicode for the Arabic Alphabet
5. The Cultural Importance of the Arabic Script
6. Effective Tips for Learning the Arabic Alphabet
7. Conclusion: Discovering the World Through the Arabic Alphabet

Introduction to the Arabic Alphabet

The Arabic alphabet (أبجدية عربية) is one of the most important and influential writing systems in the world. It is an abjad script, meaning it primarily consists of consonants, and vowels are usually inferred by the reader or indicated by diacritics. This writing system is not only the foundation of the Arabic language but has also been adapted and widely used for various other languages across Asia and Africa, including Persian (Farsi), Urdu, Pashto, Sindhi, and many other languages.

With its long history and widespread use, the Arabic alphabet is considered the second most widely used writing system in the world, after the Latin alphabet. Its origins can be traced back to the Nabataean alphabet, a branch of the Aramaic alphabet, which itself derived from the early Phoenician alphabet. According to historical records, this script has been in continuous use from around the 4th century AD to the present day. A prominent and easily recognizable feature of Arabic script is its right-to-left writing direction, which is completely different from the left-to-right writing of the Latin system.

This article will provide a comprehensive and detailed overview of the Arabic alphabet, covering key aspects such as:

1. The number of characters and the structural features of the script.
2. The traditional and modern alphabetical orders and their purposes.
3. The role of Unicode in digitizing and displaying Arabic script on digital platforms.

Let’s delve into each section to better understand the structure, arrangement, and importance of this unique writing system.

Understanding the Number of Characters in the Arabic Alphabet

One of the first questions when learning about a new writing system is its number of characters. The basic Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters (ḥurūf). A key difference from the Latin alphabet is that Arabic script does not have a distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters. Each character represents a consonant or a semi-vowel.

The main characteristics of the number of characters and the structure of Arabic script include:

• Abjad System – Consonants are the Core: As mentioned, this is an abjad system. This means that the 28 basic characters primarily represent consonants. Short vowels (like /a/, /i/, /u/) are usually not written in regular texts and are inferred by the reader from context. However, they can be explicitly represented using diacritical marks called ḥarakāt (حَرَكَات) placed above or below the consonant. These marks are crucial in the Qur’an, children’s language books, and materials for Arabic learners to ensure correct pronunciation.
• Distinguishing Dots (I‘jām – إِعْجَام): Another interesting feature is that many letters in the Arabic alphabet share the same basic shape (rasm – رَسْم). They are distinguished from one another only by the addition of dots (nuqaṭ – نُقَط) above or below the main stroke. A classic example is the group of letters that look like a small boat:
  • ب (bāʾ) has one dot below.
  • ت (tāʾ) has two dots above.
  • ث (thāʾ) has three dots above.
  • ن (nūn) has one dot above (in its final or isolated form).
  • ي (yāʾ) has two dots below (in its final or isolated form).

  The presence of these dots, called i‘jām, is a key factor in distinguishing different phonemes.

• Positional Shapes: Each letter in the Arabic alphabet (with a few exceptions) can have up to four different forms depending on its position in a word:
  • Isolated Form: When the letter stands alone.
  • Initial Form: When the letter is at the beginning of a word (connecting to the next letter).
  • Medial Form: When the letter is in the middle of a word (connecting to both the preceding and following letters).
  • Final Form: When the letter is at the end of a word (connecting to the preceding letter).

  This makes the Arabic script highly cursive, as letters within the same word are usually joined together to form a continuous block. Understanding these changing forms is crucial when learning to read and write Arabic.

• Extended Versions for Other Languages: Although the basic Arabic alphabet has 28 characters for standard Arabic, many other languages have borrowed and adapted this writing system to fit their own phonological systems. These extended versions often add new characters (usually by adding or changing the position of dots on the original letters) to represent sounds that do not exist in Arabic. For example:
  • Persian (Farsi) adds letters like پ (p), چ (č), ژ (ž), and گ (g).
  • Urdu adds letters representing aspirated and retroflex sounds like ٹ (ṭ), ڈ (ḍ), ڑ (ṛ), کھ (kh), گھ (gh), etc.

  However, these additions do not change the basic structure and operating principles of the original script.

Mastering the 28 basic characters, how their shapes change, and the role of dots and diacritics is the first and most important step to becoming familiar with the Arabic alphabet.

Arabic Alphabetical Order: Abjadī and Hijā’ī

Unlike the Latin alphabet, which has only one standard order (A, B, C,…), the Arabic alphabet has two main alphabetical orders that have been used historically and still coexist for different purposes: the Abjadī order and the Hijā’ī order.

1. The Abjadī Order (أبجدي):
   • This is the older alphabetical order, believed to be inherited directly from the order of letters in the Phoenician and Aramaic alphabets. The name “Abjadī” comes from the first four letters in this order: Alif (A), Bāʾ (B), Jīm (J), Dāl (D) – corresponding to Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth in Hebrew and Phoenician.
   • Main uses:
     • Abjad numeral system: Before Hindu-Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3…) became common, Arabs used the letters of the Arabic alphabet in the Abjadī order to represent numerical values. Each letter was assigned a specific numerical value (e.g., ا = 1, ب = 2, ج = 3, د = 4, …, ي = 10, ك = 20, …, ق = 100, …, غ = 1000). This system is still used in some traditional contexts, for numbering pages in book introductions, numbering items in a list, or in fields like astronomy and mysticism.
     • Character encoding (formerly): This order also played a role in character encoding and sorting in older systems.

   The full Abjadī order is:
   أ (ʾ) ب (b) ج (j) د (d) ه (h) و (w) ز (z) ح (ḥ) ط (ṭ) ي (y) ك (k) ل (l) م (m) ن (n) س (s) ع (ʿ) ف (f) ص (ṣ) ق (q) ر (r) ش (sh) ت (t) ث (th) خ (kh) ذ (dh) ض (ḍ) ظ (ẓ) غ (gh).

2. The Hijā’ī (هجائي) or Alifbā’ī (ألفبائي) Order:
   • This is the much more common alphabetical order in modern practice. The name “Hijā’ī” means “related to spelling” or “syllabic,” while “Alifbā’ī” is simply a compound of the names of the first two letters: Alif (A) and Bāʾ (B), similar to “Alphabet” in English (Alpha + Beta).
   • Characteristic: This order groups letters with similar basic shapes (rasm) together. For example, ب (b), ت (t), and ث (th) are adjacent; ج (j), ح (ḥ), and خ (kh) are adjacent. This makes it easier for learners to recognize and distinguish letters based on their shape and the position of dots.
   • Main uses:
     • Modern sorting: This is the standard order used in most modern sorting contexts, including dictionaries, phone books, class lists, book indexes, and any document that needs to be arranged alphabetically.
     • Teaching and learning: The Hijā’ī order is commonly used when introducing the Arabic alphabet to beginners because of its visual logic.

   List of letters in Hijā’ī order (the most common order):
   ا (ʾalif), ب (bāʾ), ت (tāʾ), ث (thāʾ), ج (jīm), ح (ḥāʾ), خ (khāʾ), د (dāl), ذ (dhāl), ر (rāʾ), ز (zāy), س (sīn), ش (shīn), ص (ṣād), ض (ḍād), ط (ṭāʾ), ظ (ẓāʾ), ع (ʿayn), غ (ghayn), ف (fāʾ), ق (qāf), ك (kāf), ل (lām), م (mīm), ن (nūn), ه (hāʾ), و (wāw), ي (yāʾ).

Understanding both of these alphabetical orders helps us not only to use them correctly in different contexts but also to understand more about the historical development and flexibility of the Arabic alphabet. For modern learners, mastering the Hijā’ī order is essential for looking up and using materials.

Abjadi alphabetical order ^[2]

ا	ب	ج	د	ه	و	ز	ح	ط	ي	ك	ل	م	ن	س	ع	ف	ص	ق	ر	ش	ت	ث	خ	ذ	ض	ظ	غ
ʾ	b	j	d	h	w	z	ḥ	ṭ	y	k	l	m	n	s	ʻ	f	ṣ	q	r	sh	t	th	kh	dh	ḍ	ẓ	gh
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100	200	300	400	500	600	700	800	900	1000

The Role of Unicode for the Arabic Alphabet

In the digital age, accurately and consistently representing complex writing systems like the Arabic alphabet on computers and electronic devices is a major challenge. Unicode has played a key role in solving this problem, becoming the international standard for encoding, representing, and handling text in most of the world’s writing systems, including Arabic.

The importance of Unicode for the Arabic alphabet is demonstrated in the following points:

• Character Standardization: Unicode provides a unique code point for each character, regardless of the platform, program, or language being used. This resolves the chaos caused by proprietary and incompatible character sets of the past. Thanks to Unicode, Arabic text can be exchanged and displayed reliably across different operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS), web browsers, and applications.
• Dedicated Encoding Range: Unicode allocates specific code blocks for characters of the Arabic alphabet and related characters:
  • Main “Arabic” block: U+0600 to U+06FF. This block contains 256 code points, including the basic Arabic letters, diacritics (*ḥarakāt*), *tanwīn* marks, Eastern Arabic numerals (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩), special punctuation, and characters needed for the Qur’an.
  • “Arabic Supplement” block: U+0750 to U+077F. This block contains additional characters needed for other languages that use the Arabic script but have phonemes not found in standard Arabic (e.g., characters used in Sindhi, Parkari, and some African languages).
  • “Arabic Presentation Forms-A” (U+FB50–U+FDFF) and “Arabic Presentation Forms-B” (U+FE70–U+FEFF) blocks: These blocks contain the positional variants (initial, medial, final, isolated) and ligatures of Arabic letters. However, direct use of these codes is not recommended. Instead, applications and operating systems should rely on the basic character codes in the U+06xx block and use complex text rendering algorithms to automatically select the appropriate shapes and ligatures.
• Support for Complex Properties: Unicode does more than just assign codes to characters. The standard also defines the properties and rules necessary to correctly handle the complex features of the Arabic script:
  • Right-to-Left (RTL) Direction: Unicode defines a directional property for each character. Arabic characters are marked as RTL, allowing text rendering engines to display them in the correct direction. The Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (BiDi) handles how RTL and LTR (Left-to-Right, like English) text are displayed when they appear together on the same line.
  • Cursive Joining and Contextual Shaping: As mentioned, Arabic letters change shape depending on their position. Unicode defines a joining type for each letter (e.g., dual-joining, right-joining, non-joining). Smart text rendering engines use this information to automatically select and display the correct shape (initial, medial, final, isolated) and create necessary ligatures (e.g., the combination of ل + ا into لا).
  • Placement of Diacritics: Unicode ensures that diacritics like *ḥarakāt* are encoded separately but are displayed in the correct position above or below the base letter they accompany.

Thanks to Unicode, the Arabic alphabet has been seamlessly integrated into the digital world, allowing hundreds of millions of people to use it to communicate, learn, work, and preserve their cultural heritage on modern technology platforms. This is a fundamental element for the growth of digital content in Arabic and related languages.

The Cultural Importance of the Arabic Script

The Arabic alphabet is not just a system of characters for recording language; it carries deep cultural, religious, and artistic significance, especially in the Arab and Islamic worlds.

• The Language of the Qur’an: For Muslims worldwide, the Arabic language and its script hold a very special place because it is the language of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. Learning to read Arabic script is essential to be able to read the Qur’an in its original language. This has contributed significantly to the preservation and dissemination of the Arabic alphabet beyond the borders of Arabic-speaking countries.
• Literary and Scientific Heritage: During the Islamic Golden Age (around the 8th to 14th centuries), Arabic was the language of science, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and literature. Countless classic works in these fields were written in Arabic script, contributing immensely to the world’s body of knowledge. The Arabic alphabet is the key to directly accessing this rich intellectual heritage.
• The Art of Calligraphy (Khatt – خط): Due to restrictions on figurative representation in traditional Islamic art, calligraphy developed into a sophisticated and revered visual art form. The Arabic alphabet, with its fluid lines, cursive nature, and variable shapes, became an excellent medium for calligraphers (*khaṭṭāṭ*) to express their creative talents. Many famous calligraphic styles emerged, such as:
  • Kufic: Ancient, angular, often used in architectural decoration.
  • Naskh: Clear, rounded, the most common print typeface.
  • Thuluth: Flowing, complex, often used for large titles and decoration in mosques.
  • Diwani: Ornate, with letters intricately joined, once used in the Ottoman court.
  • Ruq’ah: Simple, fast, often used in everyday handwriting.

  Arabic calligraphy is not just beautiful writing but also a means of spiritual and aesthetic expression.

• Symbol of Identity: For many communities, from North Africa to the Middle East and parts of Asia, the Arabic alphabet is an important part of cultural and linguistic identity, even for those who do not speak Arabic but use this script for their native language (such as Persians and Urdu speakers).

The deep connection between the Arabic alphabet and religion, history, art, and identity makes it an inseparable element of the cultural heritage of a large part of the world.

Effective Tips for Learning the Arabic Alphabet

Learning a completely new writing system like the Arabic alphabet can be a challenge, but with the right approach, you can certainly master it. Here are some useful tips:

1. Don’t Learn in Order: Although knowing the Hijā’ī order is useful for looking things up, when you start learning, focus on recognizing each individual letter and its variant forms (initial, medial, final, isolated). Group letters with similar shapes together (e.g., ب, ت, ث; ج, ح, خ; د, ذ; ر, ز; س, ش; ص, ض; ط, ظ; ع, غ) and learn to distinguish them by their dots.
2. Focus on Sounds: Each Arabic letter represents a specific sound. Listen carefully to the standard pronunciation (you can find videos or pronunciation apps) and try to imitate it. Pay attention to sounds that don’t exist in English, such as the deep guttural sounds (ع, ح), emphatic consonants (ص, ض, ط, ظ), and the ق sound.
3. Write Regularly: Writing is the best way to memorize letter shapes and how they connect. Start by writing individual letters, then practice writing short words. Pay attention to the right-to-left writing direction and how the letters flow together.
4. Use Flashcards and Apps: Flashcards are very effective for memorizing letters and their sounds. There are many mobile apps designed specifically to teach the Arabic alphabet in an interactive and fun way.
5. Understand the Positional Forms: Take the time to learn the 4 forms (isolated, initial, medial, final) of each letter. Recognizing which form is being used in a word is key to reading correctly. Note that there are 6 letters (ا, د, ذ, ر, ز, و) that only connect to the preceding letter, not the following one.
6. Learn the Vowel Marks (Ḥarakāt): Although not always written, understanding the short vowel marks (fatha /a/, kasra /i/, damma /u/), the silent mark (sukūn), and the consonant-doubling mark (shadda) is crucial for correct reading, especially when you are a beginner or reading important texts.
7. Find Simple Materials: Start with materials for children or beginners, where the vowel marks are often fully written and the vocabulary is simple.
8. Be Patient and Consistent: Learning a new alphabet takes time and effort. Dedicate time to practice regularly every day, even if it’s just 15-20 minutes, instead of trying to cram too much information at once.

By applying these tips and maintaining perseverance, you will gradually master the Arabic alphabet, opening the door to this rich language and culture.

Conclusion: Discovering the World Through the Arabic Alphabet

Through this detailed article, we have explored the structure, arrangement, digital role, and deep cultural significance of the Arabic alphabet. From its 28 basic characters, the abjad system, distinguishing dots, the two Abjadī and Hijā’ī orders, to the indispensable role of Unicode in the modern world, the Arabic alphabet is truly a unique and captivating writing system.

Understanding the Arabic alphabet is not just about learning a new set of characters. It is the key that opens the door to one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, allowing you to communicate with hundreds of millions of people. More importantly, it helps you to more directly access and explore the incredibly rich culture, history, literature, and art of the nations in the Arab and Islamic worlds.

Whether you are interested in learning Arabic, studying religion, exploring the art of calligraphy, or simply want to broaden your understanding of different cultures, learning the Arabic alphabet is a meaningful first step. Hopefully, the information in this article has provided you with a necessary overview and inspiration to delve deeper, and to effectively apply it to your learning or work goals. The world of the Arabic alphabet awaits your discovery!